The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 18.2% of Bangladeshis were undernourished in 2010, the highest point in its series since 2001. By 2024 the figure was 8.2%.
18.2% → 8.2%
Share of the population undernourished, 2010 and 2024.
The decline was not steady from the start. The share rose from 14.6% in 2002 to 18.2% in 2010, then fell every year from 2011 onward, to 12.1% in 2018, 9.2% in 2021 and 8.7% in 2023. Progress has slowed recently: the drop between 2021 and 2024 (1.0 percentage point) was far smaller than between 2017 and 2020 (3.1 points).
The indicator measures the share of people whose habitual food consumption is too low to supply the dietary energy needed for a normal, active and healthy life. It captures calories, not diet quality, so it does not show hidden hunger or poor diets, and it is a modelled estimate rather than a direct count. Even at 8.2%, the share implies millions of people still going short of food energy, and the figure says nothing about differences between districts or households.
For policy, the gap that remains is likely to be harder to close than the first fall: it points to the need for targeted food and income support and for keeping food affordable when prices rise.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), via World Bank WDI (SN.ITK.DEFC.ZS).